Same business, new home

Breyfogle Auto Sales is settling into a new location in Marshall

August 8, 2011

MARSHALL - It still feels like they're getting settled in, Duaine Breyfogle said, but business is up and running in a new location for Breyfogle Auto Sales and the Muffler Shop. The auto dealership and shop moved into the former Marshall Auto Mall earlier this summer.

Breyfogle, who runs the business together with his son Mike Breyfogle, said he had started looking for a new place for the dealership and shop when he learned the business' current location would be going up for sale. The Marshall Auto Mall property was a good fit.

"It was the ideal place that happened to be open," Breyfogle said. The property was already set up for an auto business, and had its own shop space and showroom.

Article Photos

Photo by Deb GauMike and Duaine Breyfogle are at work in a new location, now that Breyfogle Auto Sales and the Muffler Shop has moved to the former Marshall Auto Mall property in Marshall.

"It's an excellent location," Breyfogle said, with access to U.S. Highway 59.

Balancing business with the move took some work, Breyfogle said. The big pieces of shop equipment like the hoists were moved over first. Although it felt like slow going, both the muffler shop and sales business are now up and running in the new location.

It hasn't been the first move for the business, but the Breyfogles have stayed local through it all.

"We would never leave," Breyfogle said.

The Breyfogle family have been in the auto business in Marshall for a long time, although not always in the same spot. Duaine's father Marion Breyfogle started out in 1928, first in a partnership with the Tholen auto dealership, and after 1958 on his own. In 1962, a building was built on College Drive, and the business stayed there for about 20 years, Breyfogle said. After that, the business spent another two decades on Main Street.

The Breyfogles started out with Studebaker and Packard dealerships, and then Plymouth and Chrysler, Breyfogle said. When Marion Breyfogle retired in 1980, the business switched to used car sales. There was more flexibility in being an independent dealership, Duaine Breyfogle said.

By now, three generations of the Breyfogle family have been a part of the business.

"I worked with my dad when I got out of high school," Duaine Breyfogle said, and his own son would go on to join the business. They each have their own areas of expertise.

"When my dad and I were partners, we were both doing everything," Duaine Breyfogle said. Now, "Mike has the muffler shop part of it," while Duane sticks to the sales side of the business.

Customer reaction to the new location have been positive so far, Breyfogle said.